Artist Website: www.lirband.com
About LiR
LiR were a band from the Northside of Dublin. The released the albums 'Magico Magico' (1994) and 'Nest' (1995).
LiR were formed in the 80s by 5 teenage friends from Donaghmede known as Ro (Ronan Byrne, guitar), Hoppo (David Hopkins, keyboards), Hutchie (Craig Hutchinson, drums), Bonzo (Robert Malone, bass) and Dave McGuiness (vocals). The went through some different band names, Spontaneous Frogs and Uproar before settling in LiR after the name 'God' was rejected. Although their music skills were pretty rudimentary at the very start, they quickly honed their chops and became very popular around Dublin venues.
Hoppo and Ro attended Ballyfermot Rock College where they met some music industry people. They got their first offer of signing from Clive Hudson of Ringsend Road record company. But it didn't work out with Clive due to tensions with their management at the time.
They hooked up with a new management team, Muchwood management, lead by David Reilly and gigged around the country generating a lot of interest including interest from major record labels but nothing much came of it and they remained unsigned. So they decided to try their luck in America. Over in The States they got noticed and generated some good press. But for some reason, perhaps management incompetence, they still remained unsigned. They finally released an EP 'All Machines Hum in A' in 1992 which debuted in the Irish charts as highest new entry but unfortunately didn't get much air play. However, they did manage to get a promising deal with Chrysalis Records and they recorded the album 'Magico Magico!' which was released in 1993. It got some good reviews but didn't make any impact on the charts. Subsequently they were dropped by Chrysalis.
Independent label 'What Are Records?', picked them up and released their album in the States in 1994. They toured in the States for the guts of 2 years, it wasn't easy without proper support and tensions arose between the band, the crew and management.
Hoppo met a girl in America and announced he was leaving the band. They brought in Colm Quearney (Q) from the band Dragonfly that had just split. Q brought a heavier rock sound to the band. The band were rejuvenated and they continued touring and recording. They put out the album 'Nest' in 1995 and went back on the road in the States to tour it. But things were still not happening for the band and the band members were still skint and they started asking themselves could they really go on like this. Drummer Hutchie in particular was burned out and had enough of it and quit.
They brought in Johnny Boyle to replace Hutchie on drums and the band soldiered on for awhile. In mid-crisis, the band decided to try and find new management to try and turn things around and the dropped David Reilly and the Muchwood management team. The band got a bit of a boost and media attention when their song 'There are more things' was picked up to be featured in the movie 'I went down'. There was more talk of record deals and they were told by a rep from Reprise records that they wanted to sign them but it didn't materialise and that pretty much was the end of the road for LiR. A protracted legal battle with their former manager, David Reilly, ensued after he sued them for costs arising out of their ill-fated tour, alleging they breached contract by cutting the tour short.
The members of LiR still remain active. The band still reconvenes at least once a year to play a gig for the home crowd (partly to help cover legal costs). The album 'LiR Live' resulted from one of these shows. Based in the US, David Hopkins has released seven solo albums. Robert Malone has been playing bass for David Gray since the White Ladder era. Ronan Byrne records with his band, Earthquake Hair and David McGuiness performs solo as Bigwig. Colm Quearney, as Q, has also released three solo albums to great acclaim.
A documentary on the band, directed by Shimmy Marcus and entitled "Good Cake Bad Cake: The Story of LIR" was released in 2011. Good Cake Bad Cake: The Story of LIR can currently be viewed on YouTube.
Video
LIR - In A Day
LIR - Temple Child
LiR - There Are More Things (official video)
LIR LIVE @ THE WATERFRONT
LIR - Traveller - live 1992
Comments
Jason Campbell wrote on 2024-11-29 00:00:00:You missed the part that their first few EP’s and the first album was with now defunct Dublin Indie label Velo Records. Including: All machines hum in A Magico Magico This Appeared 7000 Apes 600
eoin wrote on 2008-02-29 00:00:00:
Can someone tell me if this is the same band who had the song 'begin again' on the soundtrack of 'I went down'? If so, where can I get it?
mike gilchrist wrote on 2007-08-29 00:00:00:
ro byrne wants 80,000
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